


A Song in Your Heart

by wonderluck



Category: Van Helsing (TV 2016)
Genre: F/F, Reunions, Treat, a little crack probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-02-07 09:56:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21456151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderluck/pseuds/wonderluck
Summary: Sarah is on the road to Loveland and nothing's going to stop her.
Relationships: Sarah "Doc" Carol/Jolene Walker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7
Collections: Femslash Exchange 2019





	A Song in Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertScribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertScribe/gifts).

Two days into her trek toward Loveland, Sarah finds a bicycle. It’s one of those big beach cruisers with the chrome handlebars and white handgrips. It's enormous and heavy and bright blue. What the hell someone needed this exact bike for in the middle of the woods, she’ll never know.

Pray for a motorcycle, get a novelty bicycle — that’s Sarah’s luck. At least she’ll have a way to stay on the road safely. She doesn’t love the idea of encountering more vampires, but it’s the people that really scare her now.

What keeps her going day after day, trudging through mud, slipping on rocks, dragging herself along in the cold, is the feeling that Jolene is still alive. 

Sarah has had many moments since The Rising where she didn’t feel sure of anything, didn’t have a great grasp on reality, even, and that's not counting her time as a vampire. But she can feel the certainty of Jolene alive in her bones. Jolene is scrappy and hellbent on surviving, so Sarah tries to embody those qualities too.

What she worries about most is that Jolene is still human. She can’t let herself imagine Jolene as a vampire, can’t bear it, so when she feels the thought creep up on her from the edges of her consciousness, she sings to herself, quietly. It’s not much, but it helps to distract her.

Alone in the woods, she sings whenever she needs to power through an obstacle, mental or physical: Cross a river (upbeat Aretha Franklin), climb a tree to sleep at night (TV show theme songs). 

Yesterday, it was the theme from _Friends_. Before that, it was _Fresh Prince of Bel Air_. Tonight, it’s _The Golden Girls_. 

“Thank you for being a friend,” she sings flatly as she finds a foothold on a decent-sized oak tree. She’s bone-weary and can’t wait to close her eyes. “Travel down the road and back again...” 

She reaches the branch she’d spotted from the ground and hoists herself up. She gets the rope from her pack and balances the coil in her lap while she clips her bag shut. She shifts and the rope slips off her lap. “No no _no_—“ 

But it’s too late. “Shit.” Sarah sighs as she slings her pack on again and resigns herself to another climb.

Back on the ground, she grumbles as she stuffs the rope in her bag. Her shoulders slump as she approaches the tree again.

“Thank you for being a friend,” she starts once more and it’s a gritted-teeth rendition of the song. “Travel down the road and— this is not working,” she says, anger lacing her voice as the muscles in her arms threaten to quit. “Your heart is true, you’re a pal and— this is _bullshit_,” she exhales as she inches along the branch. She leans back against the tree with an exhausted sigh.

\---

On day 8 or 10 or who the fuck knows, Sarah takes to yelling Jolene’s name a few times a day. It’s reckless, she knows, but she’s packing two 9-millimeters and a devil-may-care attitude. 

She stops her bike and throws the kickstand. She draws one of her guns and glances around, a full 360.

“Jolene!” she yells. She waits. And waits. 

A feral appears at the tree line, snarling and wild-eyed. He ambles toward her. Were their teeth always like this? She can’t remember anymore. She tightens her stance.

“You don’t scare me,” she says and almost means it.

She pulls the trigger. The feral collapses. 

\---

She’s almost out of water. She doesn’t know what day it is. The ever-present forest feels claustrophobic.

“Why hasn’t some shitty company logged these damn trees?” she mutters. 

No map can help her when she’s surrounded by greenery on all sides with no signage.

Her mind wanders as she pedals forward. She tries to imagine their reunion. She thinks about what it might be like when Jolene takes her to bed.

At night, Sarah relearns her body. Jolene said they could take it slow and Sarah loves her for it. She practices saying “There” and “Yes” in a half-whisper. 

Jolene makes Sarah forget why she had lived in an emotional fortress. Jolene makes her forget the taste of blood.

\---

On a midday afternoon after a night of rain, Sarah crests a hill, pushing her bike because her legs are too tired. She spots a body in the road down the hill, not much more than bones. A convenience store stands twenty feet behind the body.

Jolene is near the store’s doorway still wearing her prison-issued beige coveralls. She’s kneeling on the ground and digging through her pack. Sarah can’t hold back a choked sob, almost loses her hold on the bike. 

She tries to remember to breathe again and fills her lungs. “Jolene!” she yells and watches Jolene right her head and squint in her direction. Sarah throws a leg over her bike and coasts down the hill. “Jolene!” 

Jolene rises quickly, pauses... and breaks into a sprint toward Sarah. Sarah reaches the bottom of the hill and throws down her bike. 

“Sarah!” Jolene cries and she’s almost to her now. Jolene’s smile is bright and wide and it’s the best thing Sarah’s ever seen. 

Their embrace is a desperate impact. One of Sarah’s hands rests between Jolene’s shoulder blades and the other cradles the back of Jolene’s head and she’s 90% sure she is real and not some cruel mirage.

Jolene holds her so tightly that they might fuse together. She’s laughing or crying or both into Sarah’s shoulder, Sarah's not sure. Sarah strokes her hair. She’s halfway to crazy, but she still remembers how to soothe Jolene. 

“It’s okay,” Sarah says and pulls back enough that she can see Jolene’s face.

Jolene sniffs and smiles again. “Happy tears,” she says and wipes at her cheek. “I knew I’d find you.” 

“Me too,” Sarah says and before she can continue, Jolene cups her face and kisses her. Sarah smiles against Jolene’s lips and kisses her back and Sarah doesn’t think she ever needs air again.

Later, they share a much-overdue meal cobbled together from the ransacked convenience store. 

“Where to now?” Sarah asks as they walk along the road. Sarah is holding Jolene's hand.

"South?" Jolene says with a shrug. "But no more cities."

"No way," Sarah agrees. "Never again." 

\---

Weeks later, they find a suitable cabin and make it home. They rest and heal and enjoy however long they have before the next crisis hits.

When Jolene takes her to bed, when she’s ready, Sarah says “There” and “Yes” and it’s real this time.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies to The Golden Girls.


End file.
